Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Temple Tops Brown - A-10 Defense Begins Tuesday

By Mel Greenberg and Jonathan Tannenwald

PHILADELPHIA _ After playing in former Temple all-American Candice Dupree’s shadow last season, senior forward Kamesha Hairston has become the new spotlight attraction in the Owls’ attack.

On Friday night, the native of Toledo, Ohio, scored 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds, blocked three shots and had a steal in Temple’s easy 71-37 win over Brown in a nonconference game at the Liacouras Center.

The triumph extended the current win streak of Temple (10-4) to six straight heading into the Owls’ Atlantic Ten Conference opener at home Tuesday night against St. Joseph’s.

The first of two meetings with the Hawks will not be the one that decides the Big Five title. That comes with the return match on Jan. 28.

In Friday night’s game, Candice Burrows, off the bench, was 3-for-6 on three-point attempts to help gain her career-high 11 points. Lady Comfort added 10 points.

Brown (2-11) had only one player in double figures with Shae Fitzpatrick’s 13 points.

Hairston continues to be story of consistency for Temple as demonstrated by Temple coach Dawn Staley’s praise after the game.

“Kamesha’s just – she’s got the eye of the tiger,” Staley gushed. “She's in a groove. She's playing good basketball, she's taking good shots and she's finding ways to be effective on both sides of the ball

“She’s defending, she's doing it all,” Staley continued. “Se's just playing like a senior should be playing.”

The spark for Temple’s current burst began with the rally against No. 1
Maryland, the defending NCAA champion, last month that gave the Owls a brief lead in the closing minutes at the Liacouras Center.

“I think this team found an identity,” Staley of giving the Terps one of the tougher games to date.

“Being down by 15 points to Maryland and coming back, taking the lead, we told them after that game, just hold on to that moment of coming back and knowing that if you play every team like you played (Maryland) in the second half, you're going to win a lot of basketball games. I think they really bottled that and they're using it every time they step on the floor.”

Now with the exception of the Rutgers visit on Jan. 24, Temple goes after defense of its three-time conference title the rest of the way.

Philly.com’s Jonathan Tannenwald supplied the interview from the game.

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